Monday, September 22, 2008

Commuting

I started working as a woodworking instructor at Living Classrooms in Fells point back in June.

I have been driving about twenty minuets to the Light Rail and taking my bike downtown to Meadow Mill, Woodberry, and biking from there, we have opened up another site on Milton st. a couple blocks east of Johns Hopkins, its the ghetto man, really, it's bad.Fortunately my hours are off hours for the dealers and such evil ones,but that may change as the days get shorter.I am saving about thirty bucks a week in gas and the stress of the morning rush is like a Calgon moment compared to how it would be if I drove.

The mechanicals go like this;two flats, one was near the train so I walked the other was a rear in the morning I had to fix.

In front of an elementary school a woman pulls right out in front of the car I am following, she hits her brakes and I hit mine skidding into the rear bumper, over the bars, on to the hood, slide up and hit my head on the rear window cracking my helmet and enlarging my right cheek bone a bit, I am really glad I was wearing my bucket.The woman's car I hit was super nice and the woman who cut us both off yelled at me and was sure she didn't do any thing wrong, even after the security cop told her she did.

My fender snapped clean, I was rolling along at a fair clip on a new fancy 700x25 pumped up to 120psi ,went from the smooth asphalt to the cobble stones and it broke at about the fifthStone in. I rode this fender for two months straight with no problems I was very pleased with it but I think it had to much flex and when I rode over the cobbles with the high pressure it sprung to far.The other tire was a 700x38 @ 80 PSI, never had a problem. I want to make a thicker one out of a more flexible species, I really don't want to get into laminating to messy and wasteful.

One broken spoke, and a tire that the belts broke inside, never saw this happen before, it was a great tire that served me very well for maybe three years, not sure, but it lasted a long time, it happened when I left work I was praying it wouldn't explode in the ghetto I just wanted to make it to Gillford ave., Mt. Vernon was all I was asking from it and I made it all the way to the train.

It's so nice to ride every day I have driven only a hand full of times, I miss it and feel guilty when I have to drive. Oyeah after saying that last Friday some kids walking along Patterson Park threw a big rock at me, it landed like four ft. away in the middle of the road, that's another one I would be glad I had the helmet for.I turned around and rode up to them asking why and they said it was their friend behind the bushes, I didn't see any one but I don't think it was them they really seemed to feel bad about it.

This year I ordered some hop rhizomes from Oregon and they have done pretty good I think, Its my first attempt. I was at a pizza beer joint in State College PA for the single speed worlds a few years ago and they had them growing all over the porch , I thought if they could grow there then they should be hardy enough to grow here, three hours south.I don't brew and don't have an interest in starting to but I enjoy the results of the craft and appreciate the process.So I keep missing the Bootlegger's Bliss, a mid Atlantic underground tasting that involves two wheeled shenanigans. Your supposed to bring your home brew for sampling with other like minded folks, wonder if I could get in with a bag of Cascade hops and a six of Bells Two Hearted ale?

3 Comments:

That joint in PA is called Otto's. They had a nice double IPA at the time of the World's. Tried to make it home with a growler afterwards, but it got too warm and sort of spoiled...a shame.

You're more than welcome to attend the Bliss as my guest, no beer required (BTW, commercial beer of any kind is forbidden), but a homemade dish would be nice. It'd be cool to see you again. So bring your girl and c'mon down!

Cool job you got there dude. Sounds like the riding is good but a bit challenging! For tires check out the Kenda line with the Iron Cap flat protection. Been serving me well. Hope to see you at the Bliss. I'm thinking of hitting Redman on Oct. 5th, ring me up if you think you want to meet up.

Yeah Otto's, good memory, that was fun. Nice, I want to make it, car pool would be the ticket,I'll check those tires out. I just got some and will have a report on them soon.I will be in touch, its sub twentyfour hour tour season too, I just have to make time.